New location for garden center

Anthony DePrimoSweetbrook Nursery – now called Sweetbrook Wholesale Garden Center – has moved to 2371 Forest Ave., between South Avenue and Home Depot in Mariners Harbor.STATEN ISLAND, NY – MARINERS HARBOR — A long-time garden center on the South Shore is uprooting itself and replanting on the North Shore.

Sweetbrook Nursery, in Eltingville since the business was started back in 1982, has moved to 2371 Forest Ave., between South Avenue and Home Depot. The store also has a new name, Sweetbrook Wholesale Garden Center.

Owner-manager Frank Illiano said the business outgrew its South Shore location off Richmond Avenue. The new location provides three times the space, as well as more parking and accessibility for customers, he said.

The nursery is able to sell a wider variety of merchandise at discount and wholesale prices, he said.

Sweetbrook now has a large selection of Halloween lawn and garden display items, and next month will move on to Christmas and holiday displays, as well.

"In this economy it’s not every business that can say it has outgrown its space and is expanding," said Illiano.

The garden center offers a wide variety of trees, shrubs, flowers, sod and seed. It also carries mulch, fertilizer, topsoil, crushed stone and other garden necessities. The nursery will plant and landscape, although most of its customers prefer to get their hands dirty themselves, he said.

Illiano, along with his associates, assistant managers Tina Morris and Gene Lubrano, deliver on customer service. "We’re on a first-name basis with a lot of our customers who’ve been with us for years," he said.

"With Staten Islanders, the yard and garden is like an extension of their home, and they take great pride in how it looks. We’re just here to help."

Sweetbrook Wholesale Garden Center is open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 718-448-5661 for more information or if you have questions about landscaping and garden supplies.